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City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:05 pm
by Czar
Three Blind Mice, Three Blind Mice,

What is going on here, who's on first, no who's on third!




Kansas City's long-running effort to bring Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. Downtown is on indefinite hold, the city's economic development chief said Tuesday.


Andi Udris, CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, said a Wednesday hearing before the Tax Increment Financing Commission has been postponed. The hearing hasn't been rescheduled.

On Nov. 12, the TIF Commission postponed for a week the hearing to bring Overland Park-based Waddell & Reed (NYSE: WDR) to One Kansas City Place. Udris said at the time that he needed more time to negotiate a financing plan.

Timing is crucial, Udris said on Nov. 12, adding that he and other participants in the talks couldn't wait until the TIF Commission's next regular meeting on Dec. 10.

The TIF Commission, which is staffed by the EDC, was to have considered a plan to move Waddell & Reed to One Kansas City Place, 1200 Main St. The proposal came from One Kansas City Place's owners, led by Larry Bridges, president of Executive Hills Management Inc.

Bridges could not be reached. Charles Miller, a lawyer with Lewis Rice & Fingersh LC who represents Bridges, declined to comment.

Udris referred questions about the postponement to Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes, who also could not be reached.

Bridges has been wooing Waddell & Reed for most of this year. He wants the company's 650-employee headquarters to fill space in One Kansas City vacated by Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP, whose offices are moving to 2555 Grand Blvd. in Crown Center.

Hearings on the Waddell & Reed TIF plan have been postponed repeatedly since August. The proposed TIF district would finance a new parking structure on the site of the former Jones Store Co. building south of 12th Street between Main and Walnut streets, as well as improvements to One Kansas City Place for Waddell & Reed.

Officials of the mutual fund company could not be reached.

Waddell & Reed's attention could be focused on a subpoena the company received during the third quarter of this year from the New York attorney general's office. The subpoena requests information for an industrywide investigation of late trading and market-timing transactions. Waddell & Reed also has received information requests from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In its latest quarterly filing made Nov. 12 with the SEC, Waddell & Reed said it is cooperating fully with the New York attorney general and SEC.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:08 pm
by Good2Great
What's next? NASCAR & the Power & Light project in KCMO????

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:21 pm
by TheDude
how 'bout that unicorn stud farm i invested in??? when is that supposed to get built, huuuhhhhhhhhh?????

"Toward noon we spotted an animal gazing down at us from a sterile mountain peak of red and black rocks... Our guide stated that the animal must certainly be a unicorn, and he pointed out to us the single horn which jutted from its forehead. With great caution we gazed back at this most noble creature, regretting it was no closer for us to examine still more minutely."

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:48 pm
by KCDevin
why are you all losing faith in Waddell & Reed? I bet they have at least a 50/50 chance of coming downtown if not better. Downtown is alot better than OP. Especially business wise.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:25 pm
by zonk
Devin, there is no...repeat NO chance that W & R will come to KCMO, let alone downtown...it just proves the point, business as usual at EDC...time (no pun intended) to rally behind the Time Equities proposal...its a better plan anyway.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 10:30 pm
by KCDevin
how would you know?!
Also, why would they be doing this other than to promote companies to move downtown?!

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 10:48 am
by KC0KEK
KCDevin wrote:Downtown is alot better than OP. Especially business wise.
Why? How so?

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 11:13 am
by tat2kc
According to today's Star, the search for a new headquarters has been suspended indefinately. Seems that W&R has a lot of things on its plate at the moment, including issues with subleasing their curent property, the federal investigation, and the 60% drop in profits.

The city has two choices as I see it:
1. Leave things as is on the Jones Store block, and wait for W&R to decide what to do, then make a decision about what to do with the block.

2. Go ahead and consider the Time Equities plan. It is not dependent on W&R coming downtown, or anything similar.

I vote for number 2. I think that we need to focus on what we can do now rather than gambling on what might happen in the future. Let's go ahead, build the garage and the retail and housing. Then, if W&R or whatever company is looking at downtown, we already have the parking available. Its a much better selling point than saying that we'll build a garage if you commit to us. Let's hear Executive Hills say that they will build the garage and the park without a commitment from W&R. Then maybe we can take them seriously.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 11:25 am
by zonk
KCDevin wrote:how would you know?!
Also, why would they be doing this other than to promote companies to move downtown?!
???? Because I have a job & its my business. When you graduate from college...Errr High School, then college, go out get a job and 15-20 years later you might have the knowledge to back-up your arguements. Its time you get over your fixation with height (i.e. erections) and think about the economics involved in dewvelopment.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 1:56 pm
by GRID
Iv'e said it a zillion times. Forget about W&R. They are only screwing around with everyone.

Land Block, do whatever it takes to get Block Downtown, that will be worth it.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 4:12 pm
by zonk
GRID wrote:Iv'e said it a zillion times. Forget about W&R. They are only screwing around with everyone.

Land Block, do whatever it takes to get Block Downtown, that will be worth it.
GRID...100% right on. H&R is the bigger prize

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 4:19 pm
by trailerkid
Why did KC waste all this time and publicity if W&R wasn't in the position to leave anyway?

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:52 pm
by KCDevin
i would just love to know, WHAT IF on some wild chance W&R actually moved downtown. What would you be saying then?
Also, don't be stupid, I do have a job man.
Iv'e said it a zillion times. Forget about W&R. They are only screwing around with everyone.
Why would they be screwing around with everyone? There isn't anything for them to gain except everyone hating or disliking them.
also zonk
Its time you get over your fixation with height (i.e. erections) and think about the economics involved in dewvelopment.
Why would I?! This is not KC Development! This is KC Development AND Skyscrapers.
I don't care what happens as long as office space is filled, and skyscrapers are built.
Also, even if you have been in the business long, that doesn't mean your actually working for W&R, only the workers there would know everything!

For once, just gain a little faith in our city and in the companies! How do you expect ANYTHING to happen when no one has any hope or faith in anything that is done?

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 7:06 pm
by GRID
Devin, just because most of of realize the economics are not there for 50 story buildings to go up in KC doesn't mean we don't have faith in our city.

There is plenty going on.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 7:11 pm
by KCPowercat
psssst....BRIDGES go after a company OUTSIDE the freaking KC metro....it is possible to take a company from another metro not another city within the same metro area....

come on, you got a plan together and the space....go sell your building.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 7:49 pm
by mean
Gah. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that W&R decided to "move" for the sole purpose of getting as much tax money as possible to cover up their mismanagement and sinking profits.

City postpones Waddell & Reed TIF hearing

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 9:17 pm
by eliphar17
KCDevin wrote:Why would they be screwing around with everyone? There isn't anything for them to gain except everyone hating or disliking them.
They are obviously in it for the money, as almost every company would be.

The city should definitely not wait for them before doing something with that block. That is why nothing ever happens in this city, because everyone just waits for someone else to make the first move.

Another Strategy

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:00 am
by FangKC
Kansas City might do better to change its strategy and go after large companies in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles (that are likely to be attacked by terrorists). The 9/11 attacks demonstrated how vulnerable high profile cities and companies are. Kansas City leaders should begin marketing Kansas City as a safer place to do business. Large companies need to plan for the contingency of their headquarters being destroyed. Companies need to have another location from which to operate in case something terrible happens. The same goes for government. Imagine if some terrorist group set off a dirty bomb in Manhattan or Washington DC, which resulted in the area being too radioactive to conduct business. Kansas City also has the extensive underground caves where computer operations could be set up and protected from almost any type of attack from the air. There is little humidity in limestone caves and they are cool enough for keeping a lot of computer servers. Another smart move would be to create a secondary location for the financial markets to operate from if New York City was rendered uninhabitable. That would be Homeland Security.